INTRO. - ILL.- One lady said: My AUNT KAREN is the mother of two high-spirited young girls. When I called her one morning, our conversation was constantly interrupted by the din of kids screaming and chasing each other. "Could you hold on for a moment?" my aunt finally asked, putting down the phone. Within ten seconds all I could hear was absolute silence. Then, "Okay, I’m back." "But it’s so quiet!" I exclaimed. "You must have complete control over those two."Not really," my aunt confessed wearily, "I’m in the closet."
I think most parents with several rowdy little ones have felt like hiding in the closet at certain times.
ILL.- The Hiding Place is a 1971 book on the life of Corrie ten Boom. The title refers to both the physical hiding place where the ten Boom family secretly hid Jews from the Nazis, and it also refers to God, as in Psalm 32:7: "You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance."
God is our hiding place from the crud or junk of this world. And since Jesus lived in the flesh, He also needed and had a hiding place.
Mark 1:35 "Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed."
Jesus’ special hiding place was just to get away from people and often, early in the morning was His best time before all the crushing activities of the day jumped on Him. And sometimes, it was at night!
Luke 6:12 “One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God.” Have you ever spent the whole night in prayer?
DO YOU HAVE A HIDING PLACE FOR PRAYER?
ILL.- My hiding place has been my office but it’s also been my car. I never drive without praying at the same time, even if people are with me in the car. They may not know it, but there are times when I am silently praying while driving.
My hiding place has also been while walking. I have recently developed a good walking program but I don’t JUST walk! I pray while I walk and I have found it very helpful and satisfying!
Do you have a place of prayer? If not, you desperately need one. We all need God’s protection from the evils of this world. We need His attention, His listening ear, His loving heart, His blessing, and direction in our lives. WE NEED GOD!
Our text reads: 16Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. 17This girl followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, "These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved." 18She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so troubled that he turned around and said to the spirit, "In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!" At that moment the spirit left her.
While going to pray we may meet with opposition. In the case of Paul and Silas this slave girl was possessed, if nothing else, with an aggravating, demon spirit.
Have you ever come across such? I’ve seen a few people in my time who were very aggravating to me. I’m not sure, however, if they were demon possessed. They were possessed, but perhaps not demon possessed! Just a source of irritation and aggravation.
ILL.- Let me share something that happened to Brother Ron Hoyer recently on his trip to India to preach Christ. He said, "I saw things that I’ve only read about in the Bible." What things? Like demon possession. He said that after several women had been baptized, they fell to the ground and started to yell or shake violently. And one particular women starting yelling the name of a demon who possessed her. What name? "Papa cockadoo." She ran out in the water, fell down in the water, kicking and screaming (the water was only about 12 inches).
She was also screaming, "Jesus can’t change me," which we assume the demon was speaking through her, saying these words in order to scare the people.
Ron, the translator, and the local preacher waded out into the water and tried to calm her down and pray for her. She did calm down, her face changed and she began to speak normally. JESUS DID CHANGE HER!
No matter what or how, the devil would love to keep you from praying! It may not be a demon possessed person who wants to keep you from praying but it may be seemingly innocent people who don’t realize what they’re doing. But the devil will do anything to stop you from going to the place of prayer and from praying! If nothing else, he’ll make sure that you are too busy to pray. Are you too busy to pray? If so, break that pattern! For your soul’s sake, break that pattern!
ILL.- For example, preacher G. Campbell Morgan once warned, “One of Satan’s methods today is to start so many organizations in a church that the members have no time for unhurried communion with God. Many Christians are so busy that they can hear only the clink and clatter of church machinery.”
Just because a church is large, busy and has lots of programs going on, it doesn’t mean that God is strongly at work. GOD WORKS THROUGH PRAYING CHRISTIANS AND PRAYING CHURCHES!
Matthew 7:7-11 7"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. 9"Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!"
Jesus is saying that if you want to get something done then you need to ask, seek, knock, that is, you need to ask your heavenly Father. You need to pray to your Father in heaven who gives to you more than you give to your own kids!
ILL.- There was a preacher who was a manuscript slave. He not only wrote his sermons, but he read them, word for word, from the pulpit. One Sunday night the lights went out in the church. The minister thought someone was playing a practical joke on him. “Turn the lights on,” he demanded in a stern voice. He was told that the lights were definitely off. What could he do? He could not speak extemporaneously, even in an emergency.
He wisely said, “If the power is off, it is time to pray!” The service was turned into a prayer meeting, and all went well.
Brothers and sisters, the power is off in many people’s lives or at least, on certain days or at certain times. And the only way to get it turned on is through prayer!
PROP.- Now, what else can prayer do for us?
1- Prayer will increase our devotion
2- Prayer will release us from our prisons
3- Prayer will open the door to doing good
I. PRAYER WILL INCREASE OUR DEVOTION
25About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.
Paul and Silas were where? In prison. At what time do we find them praying and singing? At midnight. When was the last time you were praying and singing to God at midnight. Maybe never. Maybe praying, but it’s doubtful you would have been singing.
We can understand why they were praying. THEY WERE IN JAIL! You would probably be praying in you were in jail too. BUT WHAT ABOUT SINGING HYMNS TO GOD? That’s doubtful, unless you were extremely devoted to the Lord.
Ephesians 5:18-20 "18Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. 19Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, 20always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."
Colossians 3:16 "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God."
Heb. 13:15 "Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name."
One of the quickest ways that I know to increase your devotion to God is to get off by yourself and then sing and pray your heart out to the Lord!
ILL.- ILL.- On April 18, 1930, a man by the name of Frank Laubach wrote, "I have tasted a thrill in fellowship with God... This afternoon the possession of God has caught me up with such sheer joy that I thought I never had known anything like it. God was so close and so amazingly lovely that I felt like melting all over with a strange blissful contentment... After an hour of close friendship with God my soul feels clean, as new fallen snow."
Doesn’t that sound great/wonderful?
ILL.- A rancher asked the district superintendent to assign a preacher to his community. “How big a man do you want?” asked the superintendent.
“Well, elder,” the wiry man replied, “we’re not overly particular, but when he’s on his knees, we’d like to have him reach Heaven.”
Do you want to be able to reach heaven? Then sing hymns to God and pray like you’ve never prayed before!
II. PRAYER WILL RELEASE US FROM OUR PRISONS
25About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. 26Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody’s chains came loose."
Through prayer and the power of God Paul and Silas were released from their prison house. We, too, need to be released from our prison house.
ILL.- It is said that when Robert Louis Stevenson was a boy he once said to his mother, "Momma, you can’t be good without praying." "How do you know, Robert?" she asked. "Because I’ve tried!" he answered. AND HE WAS RIGHT. You can’t be good or get better without praying.
ILL.- One day a lady was giving her little nephew a lesson. He was generally a good, attentive child, but on this occasion he could not fix his mind on his work. Suddenly he said, “Auntie, may I kneel down and ask God to help me to find my marble?” His aunt having given her consent, the little boy knelt by his chair, closed his eyes, and prayed silently. Then he rose and went on with his lesson contentedly.
Next day, almost afraid of asking the question, lest the child had not found his toy, and so might lose his simple faith, she said, “Well, dear, have you found your marble?”
“No, Auntie,” was the reply, “but God had made me not want to.”
Sometimes in life we need to lose our marbles. What’s that? The things that capture our attention and distract us from God.
Sometimes we get so wrapped up in this world and the things of this world that it seems like we lose our good sense, we lose all good spiritual sense!
ILL.- In 1968 while I was a student at Ozark Bible College I purchased and ordered a new car. First and only time I did that. It was a Navy blue, 68 Pontiac Firebird, 400 cubic inch engine, 330 horse, 4-speed on the floor. I was so proud of that car. How proud? I washed it every day and waxed it once every week.
Don’t you think that was a bit much? IT WAS, although I didn’t realize it at the time. I am sure that it kept me from doing some spiritual things that needed done, LIKE PRAYER AND STUDY!
Brothers and sisters, there are times when we ALL do some things a bit too much. They consume our time and energy. They drain the spirit right out of us and we are left with very little time and energy for the Lord, for prayer, for serving, etc.
Some things that we do in life aren’t too bad but they can be quite distracting. And some things may not be good at all, and the only to be released from those prisons is through prayer! Intense prayer. Fervent prayer. Much prayer.
ILL.- Did you hear about that HOUSTON, Texas youth minister who confessed to a 1994 killing? He is being widely forgiven by members of his former congregation, who say they admire his courage in finally surrendering to police.
Calvin Wayne Inman, 29, confessed to a slaying he committed nearly 14 years ago, police say. Inman remains jailed without bail since he was charged Wednesday with capital murder in the stabbing death of a convenience store clerk during a robbery. He was 16 at the time.
During Sunday’s service at the 800-member Elim Church, the people praised the recently ordained Inman as a born-again role model taking responsibility for his sin. "He’s a hero, really," said Kelley Graham, 24. "I don’t know how many people would do what he did. The Bible says you just need to confess to God. Calvin took an extra step." Inman’s wife, Shelley, said of the confession, "It was a God thing."
Do you have a problem that you are dealing with? PRAYING TO THE LORD MAY BE YOUR ONLY ESCAPE OR OPTION!
Psalm 40:1-3 "I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the LORD."
III. PRAYER WILL OPEN THE DOOR TO DOING GOOD
25About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. 26Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody’s chains came loose. 27The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. 28But Paul shouted, "Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!" 29The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. 30He then brought them out and asked, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" 31They replied, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household." 32Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. 33At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his family were baptized."
Prayer led Paul and Silas to do good. What good? They talked to the jailer about Christ and about being saved. And that’s the best good that any of us can do because that good led that man to heaven! Much prayer leads us to do much good!
ILL.- The story is told that preacher D.L. Moody once entered a tavern in order to ask the bartender if his two little girls might attend his Sunday School.
Moody was told that an atheist club met there every Thursday night and the owner of the bar was in no mood to offend them.
Moody looked into the face of this man and pleaded with him on behalf of his girls. Finally the man’s heart was somewhat touched and he said, “Preacher, I’ll tell you what I’ll do. If you’ll come down here Thursday night and meet with the boys in a joint discussion, and win, you shall have the children. But if not, it’s all off!”
“Agreed,” said Moody. Moody went right out and looked up a crippled newsboy who really knew how to pray and said to him, “Tommy, I need you next Thursday night!”
When the hour of the meeting arrived, Tommy and the evangelist entered the saloon. It was full of men sitting on whiskey barrels, beer kegs, and even on the bar—eagerly awaiting the coming debate.
Moody began by saying, "Gentlemen, it’s our custom to open our meeting with prayer. Tommy, jump up on that barrel and lead us in prayer.” Tommy began prayed for the souls of those men. As the tears began to roll down the little fellow’s cheeks, the more tenderhearted of the men beat a retreat. Finally, even the hardest men present began to leave until there was no one left except the bartender, Moody and the praying boy.
Moody turned to the father and said, “I claim your girls for my Sunday school!” The bartender answered, “All right, you win. But it’s a queer way to fight!” And Moody answered, “It’s the way I win many a battle.”
Brothers and sisters, the way to win our battles in life is through prayer, much prayer, heartfelt prayer, praising prayer, fervent prayer. And prayer is the thing that will lead us to do the most good in this life!
Matthew 9:35-38 "35Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. 36When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field."
Ask the lord of the harvest to send out workers. What’s Jesus saying? HE IS SAYING, "PRAY AND ASK FOR WORKERS." Is that how the church gets mission’s workers? You bet. PRAY, PRAY, PRAY!
CONCLUSION-----------------------------
Psalm 32:7: "You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance."
Haven’t you heard? Haven’t you heard that more things are wrought by prayer than anything else? We must go to the place of prayer, wherever it is. We must be a praying people. Good things happen when God’s people pray!
